


Silk and Scale

by ADashOfStarshine (ADashOfInsanity)



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Dragon Sett, Dragon with Human Form, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sex is in Human Form not Dragon Form, Size Difference, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:48:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26957587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADashOfInsanity/pseuds/ADashOfStarshine
Summary: The Solari scouts couldn't bring the news back fast enough. A single Lunari warrior had been sighted taking down a whole Solari troop by himself. Slaughtering some of their best agents in an assault of phenomenal ferocity. Well, they would tell their sceptical superiors, the Lunari wasn't entirely alone.  He had tamed a dragon.A bounty was immediately set on this Dragon-Warrior's head. A hefty reward for this seemingly-legendary figure. Yet how did one Lunari manage to tame such a beast? The Solari were baffled.Aphelios, meanwhile, had one hell of a tale to tell. If he ever found anyone who'd stop shooting and listen.
Relationships: Aphelios/Sett (League of Legends)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 171





	1. Sacrifice

No one could blame Aphelios for being a bit out of sorts.

Similarly, they couldn’t blame him for his current sense of complete and utter betrayal. 

He didn’t show this however, as they wrapped him up in a thick woollen shawl and sat him on the back of the sled that would take him to his doom. Part of him wanted to ask why Alune couldn’t be here to say goodbye to him, but he already knew the truth. One of the elders had slipped a sleeping draft into her morning tea, so she wouldn’t throw a fit as they took her twin away. Aphelios may be disposable but their seer certainly wasn’t. They couldn’t risk Alune causing a ruckus on the mountainside now the levels of danger on Mount Targon had only intensified. As the Solari were doing absolutely fuck-all about their new dragon problem… Aphelios sighed as the space around his feet was filled with the few Lunari treasures the elders deemed they could spare. Aphelios tried not to think his whole worldly worth was less than an old wooden box. Yet no one was trying to dissuade him of that notion.

Perhaps this was his fault for not trying hard enough to garner the moon’s favour. He’d spent twenty years working himself to the bone, trying to be everything the Lunari wanted and needed. He’d been training ever since he’d been old enough to know what training was. All his blood, sweat and tears, often self-inflicted due to working too hard, had clearly never been enough. His hair had never turned that moon-blessed silver Alune had been born with. He’d never known the moon’s embrace, that touch of magic so familiar to most of his tribe. Even after all he’d done, they’d never honoured him with moon-silver ink. Aphelios scratched at the purple markings on his face. A lesser Lunari by all measurements. It made sense really. That, when a dragon had come along and eaten half their livestock, and then demanded a sacrifice to secure the rest’s safety, that the Lunari had eagerly packed him up. Now he was slowly being taken to his death at the ripe old age of twenty-five.

Aphelios curled up in the back of the sled as the Lunari vanished into the nearest cave. The goats drawing his sled, as much a sacrifice to the dragon as he was, set off with no idea of the danger that lay ahead. Of course, Aphelios could leap out the sled and hope to survive the slide down the mountain. He could commandeer the entire sled and hope some pilgrims would take pity on him in his flight for freedom. However, that would only anger the dragon when it didn’t get its sacrifice. At least his final act would be to save his tribe from a fiery demise. His father had died a martyr on the battlefield against the Solari. Perhaps, perhaps, this was just as noble a sacrifice. Perhaps his parents would watch on proudly knowing their son had used his final moments to secure the safety of the Lunari as a whole. Still, why couldn’t he have got one last goodbye with Alune?

He shivered. The night was setting in fast. Who knows, he might freeze before he had to face the terrifying maw of the dragon. It had crossed his mind that maybe he could try killing the dragon. Yet as soon as he had shown up with a blade and a pistol, the Lunari had taken them away from him. All he had left was the dagger in his boot and he doubted one knife would be able to slay such a mighty beast. No. This short sled trip was going to be the last thing he saw in this life. The view wasn’t admittedly a bad one. From so high up the mountain, it was as if the whole of Runeterra lay spread about before him. He could see the twinkle of firelight down below between patches of trees. No doubt some pilgrims were braving their way to the frosty peak. A few night-dwelling birds swooped above the canopy of a nearby forest. He saw one dive down and rise again with a struggling shadow in its talons. Life on the mountain was harsh and yet the moon watched over all of it, shining down on his lonely path. He stared up at it silently, wanting to demand why he hadn’t been enough. What more could he have done? Why had it favoured everyone else over him? Was it because their mother hadn’t survived his birth when she would have if she’d only had Alune? He’d taken away one of the moon’s beloved devotees and now… now he was going to be punished with an agonising fiery demise.

The closer they got to the dragon’s cave – an old Solari outpost – the more nervous the goats leading his sled became. Perhaps they could now sense the enormous predator waiting for them ahead. Perhaps the smell of burning that hung in the air reminded them of a roasting pit. A few feet from the outpost’s entrance, they stopped moving completely, letting out sounds of protest and digging in their hooves. Aphelios sighed and, in a moment of mercy, unhitched them from the sled. The goats immediately bolted back the way they’d come, galloping off and leaving Aphelios standing alone with a sled full of second-best relics.

Picking up handfuls of rope, Aphelios completed the last few feet by dragging the sled along behind him. He took it as far as the stone entrance way before leaving it in a nearby alcove. It was abundantly clear that this place had once been used by the Solari. They couldn’t go an inch into a building without slapping some sort of gold or sun motif on every surface. No wonder the dragon had chosen this as its home. It was a treasure trove just waiting to be claimed. He stepped quietly down a short yet wide corridor, lined with small alcoves, each filled with some sort of plinth or step where undoubtedly a statue once stood. However, they were all missing, and judging by the claw marks on the walls, the dragon had allowed no idol in its lair. Or at least the likely-gold covered statues had been added to its hoard. Not wanting the Lunari to seem miserly, Aphelios went back to pick up the relics out of the sled. He piled them up in his arms before starting back down the corridor. Maybe if he was holding the treasure, the dragon would at least give him a few more moments before eating him. Though maybe he should get it all over and done with?

He reached a set of arches. Beyond, an absolutely cavernous room extended ahead into darkness. It was too vast for Aphelios to see the opposite end. What he could make out however, was an enormous gleaming pile of gold, filled with bits of Solari architecture and glittering treasure alike. He felt his arms tremble as he stepped forwards, intending to put the Lunari’s contributions on the pile. He stepped through the middlemost arch to find himself on a narrow platform. The floor of this hall was far below him, dizzyingly so. His stomach flipped and he felt he was about to be sick as he considered the fall. If he did tumble, he hoped it would be onto the side with the treasure. The hoard had been heaped up against a wall, reaching so high that it met the walkway above. The sheer number of statues and golden furniture probably kept the whole thing standing but… it was a jaw-dropping display of wealth. Why did this dragon even need these few Lunari trinkets? None of them were even gold! The Lunari favoured silver and wood for their relics so it wouldn’t even fit on this immense display.

Aphelios tentatively walked over to the closest heap of stuff. He bent down to try and add the relics to the hoard.

**“STOP.”**

Aphelios let out a squeak, dropping the relics with a clatter that echoed horribly around the enormous chamber. The sound of laughter filled his head as he realised that the shout had not come from the hall at larg,e but from inside his own mind. Aphelios clutched at his hair as he sank to the ground, shaking in fear. Oh Moon’s Grace! That had to be the dragon! The dragon had seen him! He curled into a ball on the stone walkway as the entire room began to tremble around him. Golden trinkets fell off their stack and an avalanche of wealth cascaded to the darkness of the floor beneath him. Aphelios heard enormous wingbeats coming from the darkness as he peeked through the gap between his arms. This was it! The sum of all his time on this terrible world. Everything he’d ever lived and worked for had led him to this moment. Goodbye cruel and unforgiving life. Hello horrific death by dragon. Aphelios tried not to whimper as an enormous red eye appeared in the darkness. The smell of burning intensified as golden coins and bits of jewellery continued to rain around him. Another beat of wings, followed the stench of smoke announced the dragon getting ever closer.

As Aphelios accepted that this was it, the end, he felt a sudden surge of energy course through his body. It was likely adrenaline – telling him he either needed to fight or flee. However, with both options impossible, it merely spurred him into the action of rising. Even though he was trembling from head to toe, he got to his feet. Taking deep breaths, he turned in the direction of the eye, facing the dragon head on as he saw the glitter of scales, illuminated by the moonlight through the corridor behind him. At least, here at the close, the moon was watching. She had been conspicuously absent from the rest of his existence, but she would at least see him die for her people. Aphelios took another deep breath before relaxing his shoulders. He stood tall, proud, as a flicker of flame caught on something beneath the walkway. Swiftly the fire caught, darting between rope and candle, chandelier and sconce. Aphelios watched, rooted in place, as the fire ran in rings around the room until the entire chamber was illuminated with hundreds of flickering flames. The shine off the golden heap was dazzling to behold, so he looked for something less blinding.

He found the dragon.

The beast was larger than a house, no, several houses. Hell this dragon could decimate everything he’d ever known and loved just by landing on it. Its scales were a glittery black, like many shards of obsidian each shimmering in the firelight. Its spines and wings were tipped in a natural golden hue, a line of cruel looking spikes extended from the tip of its snake-like tail to the crest atop its head. It was a lot more serpentine than illustrations Aphelios had seen of dragons. Those pictures also hadn’t depicted dragons having almost antler-like protrusions on their heads, this one having long golden horns. It was indeed as magnificent and terrifying as scouts had told the elders after they’d lost half their livestock. And now Aphelios was no better than those goats and cattle as he became the dragon’s next meal.

Another deep breath and Aphelios closed his eyes. He’d been to so many funerals that he knew the dirges off by heart. He began to recite the warriors’ lament in his head. There would be no body for his burial, if the Lunari cared enough to mourn him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t give himself his last rites. He wouldn’t fall cowering. He’d die like a warrior like his father before him. How he’d always thought he’d…

**“You know, I was expectin’ a yak. Maybe a bear.”**

Aphelios opened one eye. The dragon was staring straight at him with those enormous glowing red eyes. The voice in his head sounded like a man’s voice, a particularly deep one. He wasn’t expecting a monster to be able to talk to him, let alone want to…

 **“Maybe an elk?”** the dragon continued, **“The horns are great for cleanin’ guts out my claws. What am I supposed to do with you?”**

Aphelios stared at him. He was assuming ‘him’ because of the voice, but he’d apologise if he was wrong. However, he was mostly just confused. The dragon hadn’t eaten him yet. It sounded like he hadn’t expected a human sacrifice at all. That didn’t mean Aphelios wasn’t going to die when the dragon got mad at this bad offering.

He let out a yelp as suddenly two enormous claws descended from above. He didn’t dodge fast enough for suddenly he was lifted off his feet. He flailed for a moment, before realising that if he struggled too much, the sharp claws beneath his armpits might cut through clothing and into flesh. Certain his end had finally come, he let the dragon raise him to eye height. As the dragon blinked at him, part of Aphelios’ brain that wasn’t completely panicked, noticed the dragon had a third eyelid like many smaller lizards did.

“ **Ah, I think I get it,** ” said the dragon in Aphelios’ mind.

Aphelios’ breath caught in his throat as the dragon’s other front paw…foot…hand… Whatever you were supposed to call it, it was now coming towards him, one claw pointed straight at his chest. This was it! This was it!

RRRRRIP

Aphelios let out his loudest gasp of all as he was suddenly assaulted by cold mountain air. If there wasn’t so much fire around, he surely would have frozen on the spot as the dragon tore off every layer of his clothing with a single drag of his claw. Shawl, cloak, shirt and bandages…right down to his trousers and underwear, they shredded like tissue paper. He let out a small scream as his clothing dropped, falling silently into the depths below. There was no way for him to move, no means for him to protect his modesty. Too much movement and the dragon would slice him apart at the shoulder blades. He desperately lifted his thighs up to his stomach as the dragon made a rumbling noise somewhere between a growl and a purr.

 **“Yeah, I like this one,”** said the dragon, “ **Usually don’t go for living treasure but this… got to keep good care of this one. A real pretty little gem you are.”**

“Why don’t you just eat me already?” Aphelios cried, still awaiting his inevitable demise. He wished the dragon would get on with it and stop playing with his food!

 **“Eat ya?”** the dragon asked, tipping his head to one side as if in confusion, “ **Who said anythin’ about eating ya?”**

Aphelios hadn’t cried in many years but he definitely on the edge of doing so.

“I’m a sacrifice!” he exclaimed, “And you’re a dragon! You’re supposed to eat me so the Lunari can get rid of me forever!”

He wasn’t sure whether he was shaking due to the adrenaline or the cold by now, but he was definitely trembling.

 **“Get rid of you…”** the dragon repeated, **“They put you up here so you could die? Why the hell would they do that?”**

Aphelios wasn’t mentally capable of processing all this right now. He was so ready to die and it didn’t look like he was even allowed that!

“Because…because I’m not a good Lunari,” he told the dragon, “The moon hasn’t given me any magic. It hasn’t even turned my hair white. No matter how hard I train I’m never going to be a proper Lunari warrior. They don’t want me and the moon doesn’t want me and you don’t want me… Why am I never enough for anyone?!”

The dragon appeared to take a moment to think this over as Aphelios continued to shake and shiver.

“ **Well I want ya** ,” said the dragon, “ **They got to be a bunch of idiots not to see how pretty you are. Shit, I’d give a whole mound of rubies for a little gem like you.”**

He moved Aphelios so he was no longer dangling precariously from his claws. He placed the shaking man in the palm of his other hand, allowing him to curl into a ball to try and preserve some warmth. He wasn’t sure how to deal with the strange compliments coming from this gigantic beast. At this rate, he’d probably freeze before he had to.

 **“Oh!”** the dragon suddenly proclaimed, “ **Yes! Finally! I can play with my other hoard!”**

His what?

Aphelios yelped and hung on for dear life as suddenly the dragon took flight. He found himself gripped in those enormous claws as the black dragon flew across the chamber. It was at least warmer being surrounded by the leathery skin of the dragon’s feet, but he still had no idea what was going on.

The dragon landed by one wall of the room in which there were two large holes in the brickwork. He deposited Aphelios through the lower one before sticking his head through the much larger one above. Aphelios couldn’t help but notice it was perfectly at head-height for the dragon, meaning he’d probably made it for this exact purpose.

 **“Gold aint all that we dragons like to hoard** ,” said the dragon, “ **Really depends on what we’re into. My Ma’s really into fine china and those little tiny plates with paintings on – real breaky if you’re not careful. Me however? There’s really nothin’ that beats Ionian silk.”**

A little puff of flame from the dragon’s nostrils lit a chandelier hanging from the ceiling of this side room.

Aphelios’ eyes grew wide.

The room was stuffed from wall to wall with rails, shelves and boxes, every single one packed with silk. Most of it was in the form of clothing – enough to outfit an entire town for generations. And what a finely-attired town it would be too. Silk was reserved only for those with ample gold, but these silks… These must have been made for or worn by Ionian aristocracy! The sheer detail in the embroidery was staggering, it must have taken months if not years to create such intricate pieces. And this dragon had hundreds of them! How many Ionian cities had he raided for these? Were there any left over there? He touched a delicate silk robe on which had been stitched an incredibly realistic heron in flight. The fabric was so smooth and soft, he could instantly tell why people were happy to own it.

 **“Feels good, doesn’t it?”** commented the dragon, **“Kinda sad I can’t put it on like this. You’d need a lot of silk even to put a scarf on me! But you can wear whatever you want! Go on! Try some!”**

Oh, thank goodness. If he was exposed any longer he was going to start losing feeling in his extremities. Also, the dragon didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with his naked body, but the more Aphelios saw it…well… it didn’t quite look as he wanted it. Usually he was ok when bandaged up into a better shape but… No, he didn’t need to add to the stress of the situation. Was there enough loose silk here for a wrap? That was a somewhat silly question when there was a city’s worth of fabric about him. The dragon just watched as he found a sheet of black silk and wound it around himself until he was suitably flatter, tying it with a knot better suited for rope. The silk however remained strong, and far softer than his usual bandages. Feeling a little more like himself again, he then looked around for something suitable for wearing.

 **“How about that blue robe?”** suggested the dragon, pointing one of his claws through the lower gap. Aphelios obediently fetched the robe and instantly realised that it would drown him. He put it on regardless. It certainly covered him, but he could barely walk with the pool of fabric around his toes. His hands were also lost somewhere in the folds.

 **“Eh, maybe not,”** the dragon commented, “ **Ya look cute though. What about that red shirt…and the white robe over there?”**

Aphelios stumbled over to the garments he gestured to. The robe was a lot better sized but he couldn’t help but notice the dried bloodstain up the back. Also, the red shirt was incredibly tight.

 **“Aw the white’s real nice on you,”** said the dragon, “ **Shame that’s a bit grubby. Let’s see something else in pale colours.”**

The next outfit was a pastel blue Ionian kimono embroidered with swirling koi. It was incredibly beautiful but Aphelios couldn’t help but feel this was designed for a woman. The dragon noticed his discomfort and instead showed him to an impressive red and gold ceremonial outfit patterned with flames, and with a set of armour of match. It was way too big on Aphelios’ frame but he had to admit, he did like trying it on. Slowly, ever so slowly, he was calming down. He’d realised that today was not going to be his final day. In fact, judging by how the dragon was treating him, there wasn’t any ill-will here at all. He felt more like a dress up doll than a human sacrifice right now. The dragon was clearly thrilled to have someone around to try on his extensive collection.

“ **You pick some**!” the dragon insisted, “ **Show me what you think looks neat.”**

Aphelios took a moment to survey the room, still dressed in what had probably been a bridegroom’s outfit. He looked about for something that would definitely keep out the cold and spotted a heap of fur in one corner. He delicately climbed to the back and pulled out a black silk cloak with a thick fur lining. With it were a pair of matching trousers, embroidered with golden flowers, that had been lined with wool. There was also a basket nearby just crammed with silk underwear. He hastily donned those and found that, with a belt, the trousers would stay on perfectly. He looked about for some sort of simple shirt and found nothing of the sort. Everything in here was far too luxurious for simplicity. He ended up picking a gold shirt to match the trousers. It had ornate gilt buttons down the front that were hard to fasten with his chilly fingertips, but once he had managed it, he donned the cloak and crawled his way back out of the corner.

At the sight of his outfit, the dragon let out another one of those rumbling noises.

 **“I like it** ,” the dragon purred, “ **You’re black and gold like me. No doubt who this little gem belongs to.”**

Something about his voice made heat rise to Aphelios’ face. He assumed it was just because he was finally in a warm set of clothing.

“I’m-I’m not a gem,” he told the dragon, “My name is Aphelios.”

The dragon considered him for a moment.

**“Aphelios…Aphelios… yeah, I like that. Come on little Aphelios, I gotta show you all the other cool things I got. And we can make you some space to live nice and cosy.”**

Aphelios let out another small squeak as he lifted off the ground again without warning. Well, this was confirmation that he wasn’t being eaten. The dragon had given him fresh clothes and now he was getting somewhere new to live?

“I-I didn’t get your name,” he squeaked, “Do-do dragons have names?”

The dragon paused, clearly about to take flight again judging by his outstretched wings.

 **“Yeah, we do,”** he replied **, “Sorry little gem, where’s my manners?”**

He offered Aphelios a single claw to shake.

**“You can call me Boss…or Master if you want. But most just call me Sett.”**


	2. A New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the mercy of the dragon, Aphelios is introduced to where he'll be living from now on. Yet a simple introduction ends up full of surprises as he learns more about new resident of Mount Targon.

This must be how it felt to be a child’s doll. Aphelios sat in his new home as the dragon flew back and forth through the cavernous room, returning with everything from books to curtains to soft furnishings. The room he’d been given looked like it had once perhaps been a mess hall for the Solari who had once lived there. The ceiling and one of the walls had been torn down, but Aphelios could clearly see where the stone tile stopped and the wall had once been. There were a few wooden benches left intact and half a long table. Once the dragon, no, once Sett had let him wander about, he had poked around the two doorways leading off the area. One had been partially obscured by debris but a small shove freed enough room to make his way inside. The almost-blocked room turned out to be a bathroom. Three stone cubicles with wooden doors, each with its own gold-painted door hanger to declare it vacant or occupied. Three sink basins stood opposite the stalls - all of which were remarkably still in one piece after Sett’s attack. The room was far too small for Sett to even stick a foot in so he guessed he’d just missed it.

Experimentally, Aphelios tried a tap. His heart leapt when it did indeed release water. Plumbing! Considering the grandeur of the outpost, he shouldn’t be surprised. Yet the prospect of it being here, if this truly was his new home, was a thrill he hadn’t experienced to feel today. Only the oldest or most permanent of Lunari structures had plumbing and those were mostly lost by now. Even their village deep inside the mountain could be dismantled and moved if the need arose- they were too wary of being found to ever consider something as permanent as plumbing. It was something Aphelios had mostly read about- though he had seen taps placed into underground water reservoirs before. He wondered where this water came from or went as he noticed that the toilets too were connected to pipes in the walls.

He left the bathroom, noticing that Sett had deposited several cushions on the ground in his absence. Trying fathom what he was supposed to do with those, Aphelios tried the other door. It was as he did so that he noticed the hole in the wall a few feet away. The firelight allowed him to glimpse what looked like a hearth through it and Aphelios wondered if this was why Sett wanted him over here. He pushed open the door and discovered that it wasn’t a hearth but a roasting pit. As he was in some kind of mess hall, it only made sense that this was a kitchen. The Solari had left it remarkably pristine- though Aphelios hoped the cupboards weren’t full of mould and rot. He couldn’t smell any which was nice. He noticed that many of the containers for kitchen implements - knife racks, hanging shelves, standing pots, were half empty. It looked like the Solari had taken select knives and select tools with them before they left. That meant Sett had given at least some of them time to vacate.

Holding his breath slightly, Aphelios opened one of the cupboards. Empty. In fact all of them were, thank Mother Moon. However, the fire pit was still stocked with wood and enough implements were left to make it usable. There was even another plumbed tap nearby. He had a kitchen and a bathroom. A kitchen, a bathroom and… as he swiftly learned when he went back into the mess hall, a lot of cushions.

 **“Where do you wanna put your nest?”** asked Sett, towering over the room like a child with a box of mice, “ **Want me to move some of the wood? The back end’s probably the warmest.”**

Aphelios’ brain had got stuck on the word nest.

“Nest?” he asked, “What do you mean?”

Sett seemed to consider him for a moment, large glowing red eyes blinking at him as he considered the question.

“ **Your nest?”** He tried again, “ **Ya know, your sleeping nest? Where you curl up to get some shut eye?”**

Oh! Aphelios felt foolish. Dragons must make nests to rest in like birds. Did they keep eggs in them too? Probably a bit personal to ask to ask about that.

“Sorry,” he said, “We don’t really call them that… I mean humans don’t. We don’t really make nests, we have beds.”

 **“What’s a bed?”** asked Sett, sounding as confused as Aphelios had felt.

“Like a layer of hay or woven grass,” he explained, with a pillow and a blanket on top.”

Sett let out a puff of smoke that drifted upwards and out of sight. Judging by his following tone, the dragon had snorted

“ **Well that sounds boring** ,” Sett commented, “ **And real bad for your back. I know, why don’t I show ya mine and then you can make a nest all of your own. First human to know real comfort!”**

He extended one clawed foot to him, which Aphelios took as an invitation to clamber on. As soon as he had Aphelios secure in his palm, Sett strode across the room on his remaining three feet - his nest clearly not far enough to warrant flight.

“Here ya go,” Sett states, lifted the foot holding Aphelios so he could survey everything around them.

**“Pretty great nest if ever I saw one. Made it all by myself.”**

If Aphelios didn’t know what he was looking for, he would’ve considered the sight before him another one of Sett’s piles of stuff. As he got a closer look though, he realised that Sett had filled in a large crater in the ground with all number of soft things. So many items that if Aphelios fell into the pit, he’d probably have to fight not to drown in them. There were a lot of animal pelts in the mix – everything from wolves to bears. Aphelios didn’t know how such an immense dragon would be able to skin and tan a hide so he assumed Sett had stolen them. There was also a lot of upholstery in there. Large padded cushions from seats, what looked like more permanently constructed mattresses, more than a few curtains… Some of them were blatantly from this outpost, the Solari did indeed like to slap their imagery on every surface possible. Including their bed linen, if the blankets and sheets in this pile were anything to be believed. There were also large swathes of patterned cloth that looked lot more like the clothes in the silk room than any of the Solari’s. Those must have been brought over from Ionia too. Aphelios’ world geography wasn’t very good, world maps seemed rather unnecessary when you were too busy trying to defend your home, however Ionia sounded very far away. How many trips had Sett had to make to bring all this stuff with him? He looked about, taking in what looked like the canopies of old market stalls, before he spotted something on the wall next to the crater.

Pinned to the stonework, clearly in pride of place next to the nest, was a long wall scroll. It must have been made to be viewed by a dragon, for the scroll was five times his height and unfathomably long. The scroll depicted an image of another long serpentine dragon. Much like Sett, however this was one was a soft purple in colour, with frills rather than spines. The purple dragon was flying over the water, in which several small fishing boats sat. There were silver fish in the water, many caught in the fishermen’s nets. However many of the boat’s occupants were busy waving to the dragon as it flew by. Once again, this didn’t look like any art or imagery Aphelios had seen in his books or on cave walls. Was this Ionian as well?

 **“That’s my Ma** ,” said Sett in his head, as he noticed where Aphelios was looking, “ **She’s the guardian of a fishing village back home in Ionia. They made her a big picture every year at their yearly festival but she let me take this one with me, ya know, to remember her by when I went and found a place of my own.”**

So Sett was Ionian. That made a lot of sense considering he didn’t look like any of the dragons Aphelios had ever read about. Targon had its own dragons, but they were stocky muscular looking beings, more akin to bears than snakes. Also they never ventured this far up the mountain.

“You must have travelled a really long way from your mother,” he said to Sett, “Why did you move all the way to Targon?”

There was another huff of smoke as Sett sat down beside his nest. He gently placed Aphelios atop a pile of gilt furniture, which was thankfully stable, before resting his head on the pile so they could look at each other face to face.

“ **Can’t say I don’t miss it,”** Sett confessed, “ **Ionia’s real pretty compared to this place. Not that this place isn’t special or nothing. Lots more trees in Ionia, though still lots of rocks. Doesn’t snow as much either. I kinda miss all the colours.”**

Aphelios wasn’t sure what to say to that, so just let him pause for a moment before continuing.

 **“Humans can live in their little boxes together,”** Sett stated, “ **But dragons? We gotta have room to stretch our wings out, find a place to really call our own. A dragon rules his bit of the world, whether the little creatures want us to or not. Problem was, in Ionia, there’s so many of us dragons, that we kind of ran out of space.”**

Ah. That made sense.

“ **I could’ve tried to fight another for his lands** ,” **Sett continued, “I may not look it little gem, but I’m actually still got some growing left in me. We dragons don’t really stop growing in fact, so all the land around where I used to live? Owned by much bigger, older, more magical dragons than I was. My Ma was happy with her little fishing village and they were happy to let her have it. Besides, when a dragon becomes the protector of some people, those people don’t take it kindly when you kill their protector. It became sort-of tradition, each settlement worshipped its own dragon and all the settlements were taken. I had to go elsewhere.”**

So Sett also couldn’t go back to his home. Even though it was Sett that had very much put Aphelios in this predicament, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“ **So, I had a fly around,”** Sett said, “ **And I found out we dragons had cousins here in Targon. But when I came to see them, they were nothing like the dragons back home. They’re like beasts, can’t talk, can’t use telepathy, can’t do nothing really. I can communicate with them a bit, but it’s all basic urges with them – eat, sleep, fuck, you know, animal stuff. This was real disappointing, but just as I went to leave, I realised something. If I was the only clever dragon in Targon, I could easily become the guardian of this entire country! I even got a big mountain to live on like the dragons of old! It didn’t look like any of the Targon dragons had tried to make a lair up on the mountain, so I found myself this place and got started.”**

“Isn’t it very cold for you?” asked Aphelios. If Sett fancied himself the guardian of Targon, he was going to end up embroiled in its religious politics eventually. It didn’t sound like Sett knew much about that yet, but he had destroyed a Solari outpost. Maybe he fancied destroying some more?

 **“Nah, I got plenty of fire inside to keep me warm,”** Sett replied, **“Probably why I can live up here but the Targon dragons don’t. Fire doesn’t really do much for getting lonely, but hey, I got my own living treasure now. You can keep me company!”**

His tone brightened significantly. Pretty much confirming Aphelios’ suspicions, it sounded like he wanted to keep him as a living doll for personal entertainment It was much better than dying at least, but Aphelios truly hadn’t thought this was how his life would go. Being the plaything of a dragon to save his people was far less noble sounding that sacrificing his life for them. However, he’d rather not die and…well, things could be worse. He was still protecting them.

 **“Alright, you’ve seen my nest, let’s make yours!”** Sett suggested brightly, **“You go choose where you want it. I got some spare pelts around here somewhere.”**

He deposited Aphelios back in his room before flying off. Aphelios surveyed the remnants of the mess hall, noting that Sett had put a wardrobe in here without him noticing. The wardrobe was leaning against one wall near the far end of the room, closer to where most of the benches and table remained. He was used to keeping his belongings in a box by his bed, so he guessed he could put his nest next to the wardrobe. Aphelios surveyed the bits of wood, wondering if a structure was part of making a nest. Sett had deliberately put his in a bowl-like crater for some shaping. There wasn’t a crater in here but…he could sort of make himself a frame out of benches. As Sett flapped around the room behind him, Aphelios began moving benches and bits of wood around until he had a rough hexagonal structure on one side of the room. Most of the walls of this hexagon were made of benches, however he’d found more scrap wood, some of which still had nails in that he could use to fix the walls of his structure together. Through nails and wedging bits together, he constructed a knee-high set of walls before making sure there wasn’t anything too spiky that he could stab himself on during the night. By the time he’d done that, Sett returned with arms full of wolf pelts, which he deposited on the floor with a thump.

 **“I had a thought,”** declared the dragon, “ **You humans got to eat multiple times a day, right?”**

Aphelios looked up at him.

“Yes?” he replied, slightly surprised by the question.

 **“Yeah, thought so** ,” said the dragon, “ **Usually I can get away with just eatin’ a few elk or something and that does me for the week. But I got to get ya some human food. You happy to build a nest whilst I go on a raid?”**

A raid? Like he’d done on their livestock?

“I’ll be fine,” Aphelios told him, “But… can you not take anything else from the Lunari? It’s hard enough to grow enough as it is.”

This time he felt the dragon’s confusion through their telepathic link, before Sett said anything.

**“What’s a Lunari? That a type of human?”**

Ah. Well, if he wanted to be the guardian of Targon he was going to have to learn eventually.

“Yes,” Aphelios told him, sitting on his new structure, “It’s the type of human I am. We live hidden in the mountain because the Solari, another type of human, want to kill us all for not worshipping the sun like they do.”

 **“What? They’re killin’ you all for having a different god? That’s stupid!”** exclaimed the dragon, “ **In Ionia there’s all sort of dragons and spirits and whatnot, no one kills each other because theirs is different. What’s the Solari humans’ deal?”**

“If you sit, I can explain,” Aphelios told him, “It’s…a very important thing to know about Targon.”

Sett immediately sat, curling his tail around himself as he did so. Now he was decidedly rounder, Aphelios couldn’t help but think about a cat dozing in front of a fire.

**“Alright, I’m listening.”**

So here Aphelios was, explaining the plight of his people to a dragon of all things.

“Once there were two main religions in Targon,” he started simply, “The Lunari worship the moon. The Solari worship the sun. A very long time ago, both peoples lived side by side, both had towns and villages, temples and markets. Pretty much like any settlement of people anywhere. However, one day the Solari decided that they were one true religion.”

He’d been told this story many times by the Lunari elders, but they always told it in fanciful language with plenty of metaphors he was sure the dragon wouldn’t understand. So he was kind of translating for Sett as he went.

“They attacked the Lunari without warning, branding us heretics. Destroyed our towns, our villages, and forced us to retreat up the mountain. Since then they have never stopped hunting us. This outpost… this place we’re in now, it was probably built so scouts could explore the mountain and search for remnants of the Lunari to exterminate them. Every Solari is ordered to kill us on sight. So we live in darkness now, hidden within the very depths of this mountain. Every hunting party, every attempt at trade, is a huge risk in case the Solari find and kills our people. We can’t have farms, or keep obvious pastures without the Solari investigating them for Lunari influence. The few farms we have…those working there have to hide every trace of their faith, almost giving it up in the name of keeping us fed. To give us things to trade with the pilgrims or the merchants that pass through our land. We have mined a little, we find precious stones in the mountain occasionally, but we can’t live off rocks. We can’t afford to lose what little land we had, even to you. You’ve already eaten half our goats and sheep.”

There was a moment of silence between them, only disturbed by the faint crackling of flames.

 **“So what I’m gettin’ here** ,” Sett finally commented, “ **Is that I shouldn’t raid the Lunari or the merchants, but take whatever I want from the gold people, the Solari.”**

Aphelios nodded, his heart leaping a little with delight at the thought he could inconvenience the Solari in some way.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “Yes, that would be wonderful, and much appreciated, thank you. Be careful though, they can put up a much bigger fight than the Lunari could.”

“ **Don’t worry,”** said Sett, “ **I know how to get the best out of humans. My Ma taught me everything I needed to know before I set off.”**

It was surprisingly nerve-wracking, watching him fly off as Aphelios sat in the middle of his nestmaking supplies. Part of him felt like he’d sent the dragon off to his doom in front of the Solari forces. Yet another, more reasonable, side told him that this wasn’t a band of Lunari warriors. This was an enormous dragon as big as a town. A dragon unlike any the Solari would’ve fought before, even if they’d encountered Sett’s Targonite brethren. Sett would be fine, right? Right? Oh he hoped he hadn’t sent the dragon off to his death! Even though Sett was the one who had forced the Lunari to abandon him, the dragon didn’t seem the slightest bit malevolent, or even that malicious. He hadn’t expected to be given a human sacrifice after all; he just wanted an easy meal. Yet, even though he hadn’t wanted Aphelios to start with, he was certainly making an effort to welcome him now. Aphelios had his own living space with a kitchen and a bathroom, he would have a comfortable place to sleep, and plenty of clothes to keep him warm once he found his way back into the silk room. It would be a reasonable existence if… if he wasn’t so far from his own kind. If he hadn’t been so thoroughly separated from Alune and everything he loved.

He could sneak off whilst Sett was absent. However, the night had drawn in and it would be bitterly cold outside. Too cold, most likely, for him to make much progress down the mountainside without freezing. Besides, he had come here to be a sacrifice, to protect the Lunari, and who knew how Sett would react to finding him gone? If Aphelios stayed where he was, if he didn’t risk near-certain death tonight, then he was still honouring that promise. He was here and Sett wouldn’t disturb the Lunari again. Even more than that, Sett had listened to his explanation about the conflict, had agreed that it was the Solari who should be raided instead. Perhaps he was doing good up here? Perhaps by encouraging the dragon to make victims of the Solari, he was helping his people in a way he never could have otherwise. He was surely destroying some of their enemies by setting a dragon on them!

Aphelios smiled to himself as he began to lift wolf pelts into his hexagonal nest. He lined the space with the thick pelts, unable to resist running his hands through the furs to admire their softness. Once again, he wondered how Sett had managed to get so many – though they were probably the results of raids. Once the entire space was filled with pelts, Aphelios began to heap on the large number of cushions that Sett had gifted him, followed by the blankets. Once he was done, he did indeed have something resembling a nest. A soft bowl of furs and blankets that could easily fit three of him, and certainly had the depth for him to burrow in against the cold. Once it was done, he experimentally got in, and almost sank between the surface of cushions. Ok, some adjustment needed but otherwise, very comfy.

He lay there, staring up at the darkness that enveloped the space above. As his eyes adjusted, he spotted a tiny dot of silver overhead – perhaps the entrance he’d used earlier? The tiniest glimpse of moonlight, still streaming in from the mountain outside. He closed his eyes, raising his hands so his palms lay flat upon his chest.

 _Mother Moon,_ he prayed, _I don’t understand what orbit you left for me, or whether you left any orbit for me at all. I thought my purpose was to die for your people and I was prepared to do that, like my father before me. Yet even that orbit seems to be denied to me. I’m not as perfect as you might need, but I can’t imagine you would want one of your warriors to spend the rest of his existence as a toy. There must be a reason why life has led me to this moment, to be the plaything of an Ionian dragon. I don’t understand it now, but maybe…maybe I can stir up hatred for the Solari within him. Perhaps I am here to bring this dragon to your side, oh gracious moon. Perhaps we can be a blade in the Solari’s side together._

Aphelios let out a little sigh.

_“But I don’t know. I wish there was something, anything, a sign that this is where I am supposed to be. I don’t need payment for my deeds, I give my life freely to you, but just a little recognition… a sign that I’m doing the right thing for you. It doesn’t have to be a reward, or even positive, just anything… Please tell me I’m doing the right thing. Please tell me that my life has some meaning, that I’ve done something, anything, worth remembering. Just something… Let me know that this supposed to be. I don’t know what’s happening to my life and… and I’m scared Mother Moon. None of your teachings could ever have prepared me for this.”_

Warriors didn’t cry. Warriors didn’t cry. But was he a warrior or a toy now?

_What am I? What am I supposed to do now? Live like a dragon’s pet and feel good about eating the Solari’s food? This isn’t what I trained for. This isn’t what I worked so hard for, night and day, around the clock… I spilled my blood for you oh all-knowing moon. I did everything I could, I shaped my body into a weapon for your people. What good is a weapon here? Am I just another thing on a pile of hoarded stuff? A sign. Please. I beg you. Help me back onto my true orbit, please, guide me back on track._

At some point during his prayers, he must have fallen asleep, exhausted from such an emotionally-taxing night. The next thing he knew, a loud voice was echoing across the cavernous chamber, startling him awake.

“Oi! Help me haul this stuff in. If I put this in my claws I’ll just crush ‘em!”

Aphelios leapt to his feet, almost falling back into the cushions as he sent a few flying from under his feet. He climbed out of his nest, starting to search for the familiar voice before he even realised there was something different about it. It was unmistakably Sett’s. Yet usually the dragon’s voice was in Aphelios’ head – Sett’s half of their conversations were telepathic. Yet, as Aphelios hurried around piles of stuff, he heard definite grunts and groans ahead of him. Actual noises. Not in his own head, not magical in the slightest, these were the sounds of physical labour as he knew them.

“Ah,” said Sett’s voice again, echoing in the destroyed outpost, “You really don’t appreciate how big things are for a human until you’re at their level.”

What was he talking about? How was he speaking aloud? Aphelios followed the sound of his voice until he found a large stone entrance way, concealed behind a stack of toppled statues. The arching passageway was lit mostly by torches, but the slight brush of a breeze told him that this was another way outside. No sooner was he in the passage, then he noticed the wagon that was now blocking most of the width. It was a simple looking cart, probably once being drawn by two horses. There was yellow paint on the side, with a crude image of the sun taking up most of the woodwork. The wagon was filled to bursting point with boxes, bags and sacks of produce. Not just one sort either. There was fruit and vegetables, but also slabs of meat, loaves of bread and what looked like pouches of herbs and spices. It looked like the dragon had stolen someone’s food for the week. Lifting it straight off the road no doubt as the wagon’s owners tried to take their food home. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any dead humans or horses about. Though there was no guarantee that the dragon hadn’t eaten them. Though, on the subject of the dragon, where was he? Aphelios had definitely heard him, but the enormous lizard was nowhere in sight.

“Ah, fuck, potatoes,” Sett cursed.

Aphelios jumped as a small cascade of potatoes tumbled under the cart, rolling through its wheels to arrive at his feet. There was a creak of wood as something, or someone, moved from behind the cart. Aphelios watched as a mop of black hair appeared over the heaps of bags in the cart. This was followed by two golden horns and…and…

What?!

“There you are!” Sett proclaimed, straightening up to his considerable, but most definitely, human height. Aphelios stared at him, mouth agape, as he brushed dirt off his bare chest and black trousers. Around his very broad and muscular chest was a golden mantle of spiked armour that matched his immensely heavy looking gauntlets. His eyes were still that bright glowing red but he now looked down at Aphelios with only a few feet between their gazes. Aphelios felt his face heat up as he took in those very powerful, very thick, muscular arms, that chiselled chest, those abs so well-defined the firelight glinted off every one. He tried to focus on Sett’s face, but even that seemed to be turning his resolve to mush. That strong jawline, the confidence radiating from his expression, the way his hair fell in his eyes, only for him to sweep it back behind his…. Were those feline ears? What Aphelios had thought were thick spikes of hair twitched and revealed themselves to be tufty little ears, covered in fur. Aphelios didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know what to do, say, any of it. This was the dragon. This had to be the dragon. He had the same voice, the same eyes, the same colours… but… he…. Oh moon and stars!

“Oh yeah!” said Sett, as if he’d just remembered something, “Should’ve maybe mentioned, we dragons can take on human form when it suits us. Didn’t expect it to come in handy, but now I’ve got you around, I can use this form to take a proper good look at you!”

The dragon…

The dragon had a human form.

“So what d’ya think?” asked Sett, turning to reveal that he was just as gorgeous to look at from the back as he was the front. After everything that Aphelios had been through today. After everything had happened. After marching to his death, not being allowed that death, being turned into a doll, being given his own doll house, and then turning Sett against the Solari, it was this. This was the thing that rendered him unable to speak.

The dragon had a human form.

“Come on, don’t be shy, I designed it myself,” Sett urged him on.

The dragon had a human form.

Aphelios raised one shaky hand and rested it on the cart. He tried to force himself to speak. To say anything. Come on! He could do it, he could say something, anything, just to make this slightly less awkward.

“You’re…” he managed. Alright Aphelios, deep breaths. He’d been through a lot today but all he had to do was say something and then he could bury his feelings in carrying fruit.

“You’re…”

The dragon had a human form.

“Are you alright?” asked Sett, cocking his head slightly to one side as he stared at Aphelios in concern, “Did it all get too much? Here let me help.”

He moved around the cart towards Aphelios. This was not helping. The closer he got, the more detail Aphelios could see on those amazing arms, the coiling gold scale tattoos that resembled the dragon’s regular form so well. The concern in those red eyes. The fact that Sett had to be a good seven, seven and a half, feet tall if not more. He was big and powerful and undeniably…

“I’m fine!” he proclaimed, but he was rooted to the spot, unable to move as the dragon-turned-human got closer.

“You sure?” Sett asked, “There’s a weird smell coming off ya now. Do…do humans go into heat?”

“Heat?” Aphelios asked, trying to get the conversation to go anywhere else as he struggled to get his thoughts in order.

“Yeah, you know, when it comes to the right time of year to bed on down. You let out a scent to let everyone know you’re ready to fuck. You’re kind of smelling…real good actually.”

Oh no. Oh nononononono.

“Humans don’t… they don’t do that,” Aphelios tried to tell him but Sett was so close now and he was smelling pretty good himself. Like fresh pine needles, smoke and musk. He’d never had such an extreme reaction to another living being before. Not even as a teenager when he’d been allowed to train occasionally with his fellow warriors. Had Sett done something to him? Was there some sort of dragon magic going on? Or had his emotional exhaustion suddenly thrown him off the edge and he was now going insane.

“I mean, I can’t,” he spluttered, “It’s just… it’s not a heat it’s just…”

Suddenly Sett’s concerned expression turned into a smirk, then a grin, his expression smug and knowing as he looked down at the anxious human in front of him. He reached out and propped up Aphelios’ chin with a single finger.

“Don’t worry little gem. You’re not the first to go crazy when you met the Boss. Though it’s kinda flattering I have that effect on humans too. Hm, you know what? I might stick around in this form for a bit. See what happens. Reckon it’ll be fun.”

Aphelios inwardly groaned.

The dragon had a human form. The human form was... it had turned him the most attractive person Aphelios had ever seen in his entire existence.

Oh Mother Moon kill him now!

He wasn’t at all prepared for this!


	3. Predestination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a torturous first night, a collection of rather disturbing dreams, Aphelios starts his new life as the 'gem' of the dragon Sett.

It was official. After what was potentially the most emotionally turbulent day of his life, Aphelios had finally lost his mind. What had started with despair and betrayal had so swiftly turned into fear and confusion, progressing onto religious doubt and existential desperation. Yet now… Well he was definitely still afraid. How could he not be in the company of a dragon? However that dragon had also somehow turned out to be a large, extremely attractive, man with washboard abs and a wickedly handsome smile. So now Aphelios had to add shock, bewilderment and a liberal amount of attraction to the already intoxicating mix of emotions he was currently drowning in. The fact the dragon could apparently smell his emotions on him was not helping one bit. Aphelios had no idea how to dictate what he smelled like without some sort of oil or perfume. Therefore there was no hiding anything from Sett right now. And this only served to frighten him further. He was so used to being able to keep himself to himself. To shy away from others to focus on his training or his meditation. Yet here there was no escaping the dragon who could read even the feelings that didn’t show on his face! This… this was getting a little too much for Aphelios to cope with. Of course he didn’t say anything about it. He was never one to openly complain about what life handed him, just endured the best he could. However he was now incredibly alert for what cavalcade of emotion the world intended to hit him with next. This felt like the longest night and morning of his life. Assuming it was now morning out there as Sett had found a cart coming back from market.

“If it’s too much to eat before it goes bad,” Sett commented as they hauled food stuffs from the cart to the kitchen, “You can always keep it safe in my ice hole.”

“Ice...hole?” Aphelios repeated, still very distracted with his own inner turmoil. 

“Yeah, my ice hole!” Sett exclaimed proudly, “I got this big hole just outside that’s mostly covered up by snow and stuff. It’s full of snow and ice and it’s where I put my prey if I’m feeling too full to eat all of them right then. Really useful if the hunting’s bad that day ‘cause once you unfreeze ‘em the meats still fresh!”

Oh, he was talking about packing meat with ice. Aphelios was back on the same page as him now.

“Or I can help ya eat it!” Sett added.

Aphelios wasn’t sure he was up to meal planning right now.

“I can look over everything later?” he offered, “I am not sure I can work out quantities until after I’ve had some sleep.”

“Oh, course,” Sett agreed, “When do you Lunari humans sleep? I’m kind of a wake up at noon, sleep at midnight sort of dragon.”

“That works, thank you,” Aphelios replied, “We tend to mostly be active when it’s dark.”

The Solari Outpost kitchen had a particularly deep cupboard, made of stone and packed with ice that had yet to melt even in their absence. Upon seeing it, Sett promised to go get him some more so he could keep his cold storage appropriately chilly and store his meat, milk and cheese inside. Once everything was stored away and Sett had returned with an armful of snow for the stores, the dragon wished him a good rest. Aphelios was almost glad to see the inside of his new nest as he heard a soft whoosh, then a loud thud, as Sett turned himself back into his other form. Presumably so he wouldn’t lose himself to the immensity of his own sleeping arrangements. Aphelios didn’t really know for sure and didn’t really want to ask as he pulled the blankets on top of him to stave off the cold. Who knows, maybe he’d wake up later to discover this had all been a particularly weird dream?

Unfortunately his current situation was not a weird dream. However, the series of images Aphelios saw as he slept most definitely were. At first Aphelios thought he might be waking when a ray of soft light played across his vision. But no, instead of opening his eyes to view anything tangible, he was presented with the sight of a blood moon, reflecting on a rippling pool. The moon was vivid in her crimson glory, her shapes and shadows visible across her surface as she hung full and looming over this dark body of water. Aphelios tried to reach out, imploringly, as if touching her reflection would give him some insight, anything that could explain this cruel and unusual twist to his fate. Yet no sooner did his shaking fingers touch the waters, then the dream changed. Before him now, was a training dummy made from a burlap sack and packed with straw. It stood on an old broom handle and leant against a dark stone wall. The dummy itself was utterly featureless except for its gleaming golden helm, inelegantly placed where a head should be. A Solari helm, undoubtedly. Aphelios raised his blades to attack the dummy, but found his blades gone. Instead, he held a heavy pistol in each hand, but they were unlike any pistol he’d ever seen. They looked like they were made from solid moonsilver, trigger, barrel and all. Yet protruding from the grip of each was a bright white glowing crystal- as brilliant as a diamond and as ethereal as moonlight. Looking at the barrel of each, he found no hole for a bullet or any other projectile to come out of. However he knew, somehow, he knew, that if he fired something would happen. He aimed one of the guns at the helmed mannequin, noting how weighty the weapon felt in his hand. Curling his finger around the trigger, he took a sharp breath inwards before….

He felt the gun recoil, but nothing fired. Instead a shockwave coursed over him, starting from his fingertips and rippling up his arm. Where the wave touched, everything turned an inky purplish black. Fingernails, skin, clothing, tattoos, it ran up his arm as if he had just dipped it in paint. Yet the sensation was ascending, softly rising, it did not hurt but it certainly wasn’t natural. Aphelios found himself rooted to the spot, still posed to shoot, but he couldn’t move a muscle. The magic, what else could it be but magic, felt like silk across his skin. Like donning a skin-tight sleeve that had a mind of its own. Trying to move, struggle, flail, anything, Aphelios wanted the layer off but there was nothing he could do. His eyes watered as he watched the purple-black substance creep towards his shoulder, up towards his neck, reaching for his chin before…

Suddenly he was falling. Tumbling through utter darkness before just as abruptly, he was lying on a soft bed of snow looking up at the stars. The full moon shone resplendent above him, lighting up the ground around him with her pure silvery glow. Yet, as Aphelios gazed upwards, trying to gather his bearings, he realised to his horror that the moon wasn’t alone in her starless patch of sky. A shape, long, glittering, serpentine, was flying in circles around the fullness of the moon. It was unmistakably a dragon, but it wasn’t Sett. Aphelios wasn’t sure how he knew this, or how he even had the knowledge to compare the two, but this dragon seemed to be smaller, perhaps younger, than the obsidian dragon. Whilst Sett was decidedly opaque in his expanse of black and gold, this dragon had an almost translucent quality to its wings and frills, making them almost invisible against the darkness of the sky. Aphelios could only see that it had frills when it passed over the moon and cut a shadow against the moonlight. This new dragon, it shimmered slightly in the moon’s rays, exposing scales that looked like they too were made of moonsilver. It was an opalescent white in hue, somehow brighter than even the snow around Aphelios. Seemingly quite content to simply fly in loop-de-loops around the moon, as if celebrating its presence, the dragon took no notice of Aphelios. He lay there, watching it, for a bit. The circular motion round and round the moon was almost hypnotising in a way. Despite being so surrounded in snow, he couldn’t feel its chill, not when gazing up so enraptured by the moon and her new draconic admirer. The sight gently lulled him back into a sense of sleep – the circles of the moonsilver dragon the last thing he saw before rest truly took him.

Aphelios had never been one to dream. Dreaming had always been Alune’s thing, what with her abilities as a seer, the visions that came both in her restful hours and waking ones. He’d had dreams before. Yet they were occasional mundane manifestations of stress, sadness, pain, and occasionally, desire. When he was much younger, he’d had nightmares. However even those hadn’t felt so real, been quite so vivid, as what he’d just experienced. Those had been frightening in the moment, but faded into nothing once he woke. In fact, he never usually remembered his dreams when he did have them. Yet this, whatever this was, it was as stark in his recollection as a recent memory. He couldn’t stop himself reliving the dream moment by moment as he got up and made himself breakfast. Perhaps this was a welcome distraction from his new living situation. Perhaps this was only compounding his confusion and fear at the way his life had turned? Aphelios couldn’t decide as he sat on the edge of his nest eating bread and jam. He was feeling calmer for the chance to rest and eat, however he still had no idea what life was going to throw at him next. He’d become the possession of a dragon for goodness’ sake! How was he ever supposed to feel normal again?! First the dragon, now the dreams, it was foolish to expect his existence to be anything like it once was.

He gathered his cloak around himself, clenching his hands in the silks and furs, as he tried to compose himself for whatever lay ahead. He wasn’t dead. Thank Mother Moon, that was one thing he could be positive about. He was also warm, well-fed, and had a set of living quarters that were frankly luxurious compared to what he had at home. Of course, Aphelios had never wanted for more. The Lunari lived a frugal and sensible lifestyle, befitting of the temporary nature of their settlements. They made no more than they needed, took no more than was necessary, did not place their sense of self-importance in meaningless gold and gaudy trinkets. Being Lunari was about surviving. Surviving the cold, surviving the Solari, surviving the precariousness of their continued existence. Yes, they had sacred artefacts, celebrated their heroes and their priests with moonsilver and the occasional piece of ornamentation. But, unlike the Solari towns Aphelios had visited, there was no importance made of décor, of fashion, of looking like you were better than others without deeds to prove it. The greatest honour that could be given to a Lunari was a set of moonsilver tattoos. Tattoos were badges of honour you took with you without having to carry them. Trinkets, medals, jewels, could be lost. Tattoos were part of your very being, as much a part of you as your experience, your great deeds. Despite his training, all his victories, Aphelios had never been awarded that honour. He’d been marked, and for that he felt honoured. However there was no accolade in purple ink. Just like there was no blessing in black hair. If Mother Moon thought you worth anything, your hair would turn silver if it wasn’t from birth. Aphelios’ though…

He had taken great pleasure in hacking off his long black tresses when he was younger. Not just because he hated their colour, but that had certainly factored into his decision. When he was younger, longer-haired and unmarked, people would say he looked like Alune but darker in hue. Going as far as calling him Alune’s shadow as they travelled around as a pair. Alune always first, brightest and the most talkative with whoever they met, followed by Aphelios shyly standing behind her. He loved his sister, but even then, the comparison didn’t sit right with him. He admired everything Alune was, but he didn’t want to be her dim copy, her shadow. Every time someone made that comparison, he felt a little less like a person, and a lot less like himself. Aphelios wasn’t sure he’d known who he truly was, what his mark on the world should be, until he had taken the plunge. Hacked off his waist-length hair, shredded the uniform-like pinafore they had given him and swapped his outfit for a set of trainee’s clothes he had stolen from the camp’s laundry. Alune had come back to find their tent full of hair and discarded fabric. Surprisingly, she didn’t scream, yell, run for an adult. She merely pulled out a pair of sewing scissors and told him to sit down so she could tidy things up a bit. In retrospect, she had probably known this day would come. She seemed to know everything that would happen to the pair of them. Apart from the dragon. Even she didn’t seem to know that Sett would come. Even she hadn’t anticipated that the dragon would be Aphelios’ fate. Perhaps this was it, the moment where their fates had truly become separated. The defining moment where it would become clear what her destiny was compared to his. She, the Lunari’s Beloved Seer. He, the pet of a dragon. Well, at least he had his own identity now. Even if it wasn’t the one he’d choose.

Wondering where Sett might be, and how he currently looked, Aphelios simply sat and waited for him to show up. It didn’t take long. He came striding into Aphelios’ living quarters in his human form, looking a little red in the face and out of breath.

“You don’t really appreciate how big this place is until you’re human sized!” he exclaimed as way of a greeting, “Geez, I feel like I had a workout getting’ over here! We gotta make that a bit easier if you want free run of the place.”

Aphelios briefly wondered how he wasn’t cold with his entire torso out like that. However he then remembered that he was a dragon and full of fire.

“Good…afternoon?” he tried.

“Yeah, hi!” Sett replied, “Damn, gotta remember my manners now I’m living with someone else again. Should probably go chew a tree at some point, bet my breath stinks.”

He clapped a hand over his mouth as if he was worrying about the stench escaping him. Aphelios couldn’t smell anything bad, and wasn’t entirely sure how chewing a tree would help, but he didn’t need to puzzle that out right now.

“Did you sleep well?” Sett asked, “How’s the nest life suiting you?”

“It’s very comfortable,” Aphelios replied, “Thank you for helping me build it.”

“You did a real good job for a first timer,” Sett proclaimed, “Great method of making your own bowl shape without making a dent in the ground.”

“Thank you.”

Aphelios was swiftly learning that Sett was a naturally loud and enthusiastically man, or well, dragon. He had a commanding presence over the room, not just in noise but in size. He was definitely human shaped now but no human Aphelios had met was quite so large. Aphelios could probably take him in a fight easier in this form, but there was probably no chance of him ever winning based on strength alone. Besides, Sett could turn back into a dragon whenever he wanted. Fighting his way out simply wasn’t an option. It also wouldn’t be very polite after Sett had done his best to make sure he was comfortable.

“So, I had an idea,” Sett told him, “I’ve been scoping out the place in this form, and to be honest, it looks like shit now I’m this up close. Just piles of stuff everywhere, hardly any sorting, it looks like some kind of shiny dump. I can’t let it stay like that, especially now I’ve got company. A dragon’s hoard is meant to be as magnificent as the scales on his back and what does this place make me look like?”

Aphelios felt like that question was rhetorical.

“So,” Sett continued, “I gotta have a big sort out. So this place looks as amazing as it does from a human-eye view as it does from a dragon one. And you, as a human, can help me do that. While we do, you can pick out anything y’think will make your life a bit easier – more clothes and the like. That sound like a good plan?”

Honestly, he didn’t have to ask Aphelios like this. Aphelios didn’t have much of a choice as to whether he wanted to do what the dragon said. Yet the fact Sett was asking him, meant he either cared enough about Aphelios’ happiness to do so, or he hadn’t realised he had Aphelios completely at his mercy. The dragon certainly seemed intelligent enough to understand the power difference between them, which made Aphelios hope the former option was the reason. Whatever the case, he agreed.

Sett clearly had very distinct priorities when it came to his big sort out. He had brought both the wagon he’d stolen, and the sled Aphelios had arrived on, inside and placed them outside the room containing his horde of silk. Getting there with Sett in his human form was much more of a chore than Aphelios anticipated. What had been a short flight in dragon form now required them to climb up multiple walls, find the central walkway, go along that, and then carefully navigate a pile of stacked furniture to get back down. There were ladders and ropes on the walls for exactly that purpose – making Aphelios wonder whether they had always been there or whether Sett had been making modifications whilst he slept. Whilst it wasn’t the most strenuous of activities for a trained warrior to undertake, Aphelios wouldn’t want to take the climb multiple times in a row. The ladders, ropes and handholds were clearly set out for a person of Sett’s humanoid height, not for a regular six-foot person like Aphelios. It felt like he was scaling the side of the mountain itself as he hauled himself back onto the walkway. Descending was always easier, but he couldn’t deny the slight lurches of his stomach as he worried whether the tables and bookcases would give in and become dislodged under his weight. Heart-pounding, he took the journey a lot slower than Sett, who was grappling around the space as if it was second-nature. Somehow the dragon still had enough breath to complain about the “work out” even as he pulled himself up a series of rungs one handed. Aphelios wondered if he’d ever need to work out again if this was his day to day means of traveling around. The centre of the former outpost was too destroyed for anything resembling a set of stairs to remain. It was if Sett had hollowed out the multi-storey building entirely, only leaving one central strip of former-ceiling as a walkway across the entire thing. The walkway was supported by immense pillars that had clearly weathered the dragon’s assault. Still, even that took some serious climbing to get to. Perhaps they could at least work out some sort of pulley system to help take things up and down if Sett was keen on using this form of his for now.

Clearly, Sett was excited about this change of view. Now he was human sized, he was free to climb through the boxes and rails of silk, admiring the spoils of his no-doubt numerous raids. Now the right size to wear some of them, he draped himself in silk as a means to get it out the way as they tried to clear a space in the centre of the room to begin their sorting. The stories Aphelios had read about dragons so long ago had always depicted them as being obsessed with gold and gemstones. Whilst Sett clearly had plenty of those, it had become obvious that he valued his treasure trove of fabric even more than the conventional treasure he had scattered about the place. Whilst he clearly adored every garment and roll he had collected in this room, his organisation skills were somewhat…lacking.

“How do we make this look better?” he asked Aphelios as he picked up two large rolls of fabric in each arm.

Aphelios also wasn’t one for working with aesthetics. He was a warrior not an artist but, well… He knew what colours were.

“We could organise them by colour?” he suggested, “Make it look like a rainbow around the room?”

Sett’s eyes widened.

“That would look so cool! Right! Let’s get this all separated by colour and decide what goes where!”

The silk collection swiftly spilled outside of the room as they tried to sort everything by the hue and pattern. Even this one part of the hoard seemed endless. With every layer of material they lifted off, they discovered another packed with baskets and boxes crammed with yet more fabric. Considering Sett didn’t even wear the stuff most of the time, this seemed entirely excessive. Yet then again, he didn’t really do anything with the gold and jewels either. To be a dragon seemed to be all the permission you needed to be excessive. At least Aphelios was getting some use out of all this clothing. The Lunari sled became their place to put things Aphelios might want to wear or at least try on later. Sett occasionally got distracted and tried to make him try on something there and then. It was all Aphelios could do to remind him to stay on task. Especially when they encountered slight…gaps, in his draconic knowledge.

“What are these for?” Sett asked suddenly as Aphelios tried to put a heap of what looked like priest robes on the blue pile. He looked up and tried not to look too shocked as a pair of lace-trimmed silk knickers were thrust into his face. They were undoubtedly some noblewoman’s expensive drawers, a scanty strip of black silk trimmed with ornately embroidered lace. They had probably caught Sett’s attention because they were black and gold like him.

“Underwear,” Aphelios managed, as he tried to brush them out of his face. Sett seemed to have got the message for he stopped waving them there.

“For putting under your clothes,” he continued, wondering if the dragon would even have a concept of underwear.

“Why?” asked Sett, holding up the knickers to eye level to get a better look at the golden flowers sewn there.

Aphelios had never really questioned the concept of underwear before. He actually had to give that question a serious thought as he wondered why such clothing had been invented in the first place. What practical use did underwear have?

“To stop your clothing chafing against sensitive parts of your body?” he suggested, “I mean, I guess underwear goes between your legs so your breeches, or your tights, or similar, don’t rub against anything important.”

“Ah yeah, ‘cause humans have their bits on the outside,” Sett replied, nodding as if that explained everything. Aphelios, however, couldn’t help but stare at him. What did he mean ‘humans have their bits on the outside’, where did dragons have theirs?! What did Sett have now he was in his human form if he was only realising this now? You know what, Aphelios wasn’t going to ask. Not only was it very personal, but he didn’t want to know. Organising fabric had been a nice distraction from the stresses of his weird situation and he felt like thinking about dragon genitalia would only bring the stress back with greater force.

“I have an idea,” Sett proclaimed again, after what felt like ten more minutes of silk sorting. Sincerely hoping it wasn’t about underwear, Aphelios turned to look at him.

“Once we’re done with this lot, I’ve got a pile of random human stuff we can take a look at. Basically if I don’t know what it is, I just shove it over there. I thought it was out of the way, but the pile’s got really big.”

“I can help you with that.”

Sorting through a heap of unknown items didn’t sound too bad. Aphelios expected them to be simple human everyday items the dragon had never experienced before, much like underwear. However, they still had tons of fabric to get through before that could happen. In fact, sorting through the silk hoard took the rest of the day and carried them through the next two. It didn’t help that Aphelios had to climb all the way back if he wanted lunch or dinner. However by day two, he’d learned to bring water and food with him across the outpost. At the end of the day, Sett did him a kindness by transforming back and simply flying him over. Lifting so much stuff became exhausting if you’d done it all day and Aphelios wasn’t sure if he’d survive the obstacle course on so little energy. He slept extremely well despite the strangeness of his surroundings, worn out by the sheer amount of physical labour. On day four of the Great Silk Sort-Out, they had all the rails and wooden chests arranged neatly around the room, some filled but most empty. They then had the task of putting all the silk back into its storage, achieving Aphelios’ idea of creating a rainbow around the room. Whilst colour was their primary method of sorting, Aphelios felt the need to keep the silk in separate categories. Clothing in one place, bedding with another, miscellaneous items like shoes or jewellery boxes went in the boxes beneath the rails. During their mission, he had found plenty of items that might help him day to day. He now had clothing, rather grand garments, for every season and turn in the weather. Some of the chests Sett had clearly stolen whole without checking through their entire contents. Therefore Aphelios kept finding possessions that certainly weren’t made of silk. These ranged from shoes and slippers to elegant hair combs and ivory jewellery. Upon seeing these, Sett insisted that Aphelios keep as many as could for the privilege of discovering them. Aphelios wasn’t sure he wanted any of the jewellery, but he took a simpler set of combs and a beautifully carved shaving razor for hygiene purposes. Underneath an immense pile of fabric rolls he found what was clearly a laundry basin, complete with wooden rack and a few scrubbing brushes. Had Sett raided someone’s laundry day? He couldn’t really complain – there wasn’t really any way for him to get these things back to Ionia to return them. So he was just going to have to benefit from this where he could. He put the basin on his sled, explaining that he was going to have to wash these clothes eventually, even if he did now have a whole closet full. 

Explaining the laundry basin cemented the expectation that Sett’s pile of “strange human things” was going to be a pile of every day items with no discernible use for dragons. He wasn’t entirely wrong. Organising Sett’s silk collection took a full five days, but when it was finally sorted to his full human-sized and dragon-sized expectations, they went to scope out his stack of random human items. It was indeed a mess of common things – from kitchen implements to blacksmith’s tools, wood carvings to boxes of yarn. There was thankfully a lot less here than in the silk room, but sorting through it all was still a mighty undertaking. Aphelios asked Sett to fetch a large crate or some sort of container for items that he didn’t want to keep and Aphelios couldn’t get any use out of. This particular hoard had been wedged in a small dark corner, far from sight away from any of the areas Sett was particularly proud of. He clearly prescribed to the ‘out of sight out of mind’ principle of organising his stuff. Aphelios, who had been the one who usually kept his and Alune’s tent clean since they’d been old enough to live by themselves, did not. If neither of them wanted it, Sett could just get rid of them. Or at least hide them in an organised fashion like inside a crate. Aphelios immediately noted that the objects in this pile were all made of more mundane materials. Sett had piles of gold, of jewels, of silk, but everything here seemed to be wood, iron, leather… far less extravagant and fantastical than what he had on show. They swiftly filled the first crate with broken bits of leather work, old saddles, rusty iron implements and plenty of tools that looked too needlessly pointy and cruel to serve any use except causing pain. Aphelios found multiple books on Solari faith and opted to put those in a fire instead, much to Sett’s amusement. Sett pulled out a round device with multiple knobs and dials that gave a distinct rattling noise whenever one of them shook it. Prying the back open, they found it was full of cogs and delicate pieces of machinery. With no idea how any of it worked between them, they put the thing in the trash box with everything else.

Most of it was junk. Yet approaching this pile from a human’s eye view was revealing treasures that Sett clearly had no idea existed beforehand. Aphelios assumed, when you were the size of a dragon, it was very easy to miss the tiny details meant for human hands. He cracked open a rather plain looking wooden box to reveal a set of gleaming golden cutlery, each set with a Solari sun motif. Sett immediately went mad for them, seizing the box and inspecting each and every fork, knife and spoon with a gleam in his ruby coloured eyes. He sniffed every spoon, licked every fork, kissed the blade of every knife, before running off to put them on one of his gold piles. Apparently, they were solid gold, or at least that’s what he told Aphelios as he poured them all over the nearest gold heap. Honestly, Aphelios thought they looked nicer in their presentation box than all over the ground but…well, he wasn’t the dragon, was he? To each their own. In another seemingly-boring wooden box, he found a beautiful constructed board game, made out of different shades of wood for its winding layout and trimmed with gold for extra sparkle. He had no idea how the game was played, what pieces did what, or even where the game originated from. It was however very beautiful and the craftsmanship was worth preserving. He placed it on the shelf that had once been obscured by the bulk of this pile before turning back to the remaining mass.

“Hey, Aphelios,” Sett called, seemingly back from making out with cutlery.

Aphelios looked up to see that he was holding a very large looking box in both hands. It was made from a light wood with a greyish grain that caught silver in the firelight. He recognised it at once as being the sort of timber that most of the wooden structures were made of back home. The poles of his tent had been made of that wood, so had the furniture in the temple. Its appearance was admittedly very drab compared to the rest of the Sett’s hoard, but the familiarity made his heart leap.

“There’s moons on the top of this box,” Sett stated, holding it out to him, “Isn’t that to do with your type of human?”

“The Lunari, yes,” Aphelios replied, getting to his feet to take the box off him. The sides of the box were made of interlocking planks of wood, but the top and bottom were perfectly smooth. What Aphelios was assuming to be the lid was indeed embossed with silver moons – a simple diagram showing the moon’s phases depicted in a ring. It was heavy, as if someone had filled the container with rocks, but Aphelios eagerly sought out some sort of hinge, catch, anyway to discover what was inside.

“I found it under that pile of tent cloth,” Sett reported, “Think it might have been in this place a lot longer than I was, I just put it over there with the other boring looking stuff. But I completely forgot that boring looking stuff can have really cool looking stuff inside of it. You never know, there might be something nice inside.”

Aphelios certainly hoped so. The Solari had been stealing their relics, their weapons, anything and everything they deemed important in the name of wiping them from history completely. This could be something the scouts of the outpost had stolen and kept here. This could be a piece of Lunari history in his hands!

History however didn’t seem to come with any sort of opening mechanism. Aphelios sat on the floor, setting the box down so he wasn’t juggling its weight whilst trying to get it open. The seams between lid and base with the rest of the box looked absolutely flawless. The only trace of alteration on this box was the lunar cycle depicted on the top. Aphelios frowned slightly, tracing the circle with one finger. Did he need to take this box outside and show it a particular phase of the moon? How was his supposed to know which one? They were all depicted here in equal relief. Was the box perhaps magical? He didn’t have any magic but…sometimes… just sometimes, Mother Moon listened to her followers when they called to her. Not that she’d ever listened to him before, but perhaps this box needed reassurance that it was in the hands of a true Lunari. As Sett watched on, clearly intrigued by what he was doing, Aphelios shifted into a cross-legged sitting position. He placed the box in his lap, and then his hands over his chest, just as he did for every evening prayer. Closing his eyes, he tried to summon the right words from the many prayers he’d heard over the years.

“Mother Moon,” Aphelios spoke softly, his voice reverberating a little of the walls in this enclosed bit of hall.

“Oh Distant Guardian of the Lunari People. She Who Walks Us Through Darkness. She Who Casts Light Down On Truths Untold. Hear your loyal servant as he walks the unknown path for Your People’s Sake. I came into this place, ready to surrender my life unto you, unto the safety of the Lunari people, if that is the orbit you willed for me. Yet now my path has alit upon something most familiar yet strange to me. A piece of fate, perhaps left unto us by the ancestors that once trod the orbits you laid out for them. Whilst your watch may be constant, oh great Mother, our temporary lives place such honour in the relics of our ancestors. Let me carry on their journey through the darkness, oh Mother Moon. Let me carry on their cycle, as all things must do, and cycle onto what fates we cannot guess.”

“Holy shit!” Sett gasped.

Aphelios opened his eyes. His heart leapt into his throat as the shady corner of outpost was lit in a brilliant silver glow. The lunar cycle embossed into the box had lit up during his prayer, shining seemingly an inch over the surface over the box, slowly spinning in mid-air. Holy shit indeed. Aphelios had never cast magic before, let alone caused it! Had…had Mother Moon actually listened to him? It…It was a miracle!

He watched, eyes wide, heart pounding as the little disc of glowing moons drifted slowly upwards. Over their heads, over the shelves, over the walkway, like a glowing smoke ring ascending from a signal fire. Aphelios watched it go until it was but the tiniest pinprick of light in the cavernous hall. Then, as that last twinkle disappeared into the darkness, there was an almighty:

CRACK.

Aphelios squeaked and gasped, jumping so hard that the splintering box in his lap almost fell onto the floor. He hastily grabbed it, making sure it didn’t go anywhere as the wood continued to fall apart like it had suddenly aged and rotted in a matter of seconds. Soon the familiar woodwork was nothing but a pile of soft splinters in Aphelios’ lap, a layer of woodchip and dust remaining on the large cloth-wrapped package that now lay there. The box’s contents now revealed. With trembling hands, Aphelios reached for the knot sat atop the bundle. The cloth itself was simple cream canvas, no pattern or adornments on its surface. Yet as Aphelios delicately untied the bundle, he could feel the sheer power coming from what lay inside. Though he had no capability himself, he knew what it was like to be around those using the Moon’s power. He’d lived around Alune for most of his life. Whatever this was. Whatever had caused those symbols to levitate like this. It was connected to Mother Moon. It was magically connected to Mother Moon and it was….

The canvas came apart, cascading across Aphelios’ lap with a soft thump of fabric. Aphelios felt himself freeze. Breath caught in this throat, heart beating wildly, the urge to cry was swiftly trying to overtake him. No. No… It was impossible!

Inside the bundle was a pair of beautiful silver pistols. Not just any pistols though.

 _The_ pistols.

The moonsilver guns from his dream.


End file.
